_What the Drums Told_
The road that led to Hell's Half Hour grew more difficult by the hour.
More than once Jan climbed out to push while Gale held the wheel. "Get
along there, Jeep," she would cry. "I've got a strong back and a weak
mind, but we've just got to get through."
When at last they reached the place marked "Impassable" on the map, they
realized that the map told the truth. They were facing a stone wall up
which only a human being or a donkey could climb.
"Well, old Jeep," Jan patted her car affectionately, "you've done nobly.
We'll have to leave you here, but we'll be back. At least we think we
will," she added in a sober voice.
"You take the grub-sack," she said to Gale. "I'll bring the stretcher we
brought for Jimmie, and the blankets." Again her strong back was to
stand her in good stead.
To their surprise, once they had crossed the rocky ridge, they found
themselves on a well-travelled trail. Here, however, the trees stood
close together.
"Guess we should have taken this foot-trail from the start," said Gale.
"It's shorter. If the Woman in Purple headed this way, as the colonel
said, she must have taken this trail. Perhaps she's waiting for us
somewhere in the shadows." She shuddered. Darkness still hung over the
mountainside.
"Let her wait," was Jan's grim reply. "We'll fix her plenty."
The dawn that took Pete to battle with Isabelle's red rose in his teeth
found Gale and Jan trudging, weary and more than half asleep, over a
trail that had hourly grown broader and hard-packed by the tread of many
feet.
"We're getting somewhere," Jan paused for a moment to down her load.
"But where? That's the question."
"Just one more temple and more trouble," Gale sighed.
"Oh, you can't be sure." Jan was hopeful. "This is our third temple.
Third time's the charm."
"Here's hoping." Gale once again took the trail.
A temple it was, and the most gorgeous one they had ever seen. Its
towers appeared to rival the giants of the forest. It was surrounded by
a high wall, and along the top of the wall tigers, dragons and all
manner of strange beasts, all carved from hard wood and stone, appeared
to race.
Strangest of all, seeming to stand guard beside the door in the wall,
stood two huge monkeys or apes large as dogs. Their coats were
marvelously beautiful.
"Like Siberian squirrelskin," Jan whispered. "Are they real? Alive?"
"Oh, sure!" Gale moved back a step. "I just saw one blink his eye."
"All the same, I'm hungry," said Jan. "They can't do more than eat me."
She took two steps forward. The "Monkeys of the Snows" followed her with
their eyes, and that was all.
She struck a large gong that hung beside the door. A small, square
window swung open, and like a Jack-in-the-box, a round head popped out.
A pair of small eyes stared at them. A pair of lips said "Pst!" Then the
head popped back and the window closed.
"What did he say?" Jan asked.
"Nothing."
"What does it all mean?"
"Wait and see." Gale sat down on a big rock.
Jan tried to make friends with the magnificent apes but they were
indifferent to her charms.
"You're not in their class," Gale laughed.
Moments dragged on. Then suddenly the door swung wide. A little man in a
wide robe stepped out, bowed low, then said in perfect English:
"The humble accommodations of our poor temple are at your service."
"We--we'd like some tea," said Jan.
"You shall have tea and hot rice cakes. Then, if you wish, you may rest.
"The monkeys," he added, noting Gale's look of apprehension, "are
harmless. They are great pets. No animals are ever harmed here."
"And we too," he smiled broadly, "are harmless. Our only wish is to
serve. And to serve ladies of your rank from the land that is to free
our land, China,--ah! That is a rare privilege." He led the way into the
temple.
"You came a long way to see our temple. We are highly honored," said the
monk when they were all three seated at a plain board table.
"Oh, we didn't come to see your temple," Jan volunteered. "We--" she
caught Gale's eye, then stopped short.
"We have a mission that takes us farther into the mountains," Gale
stated simply.
"Alone?" The monk stared at her.
"We are soldiers." Gale squared her shoulders. "Soldiers go where they
are sent."
"Ah, yes! But to go into dangerous country unescorted when protection is
to be had, that is regrettable." There was a kind, fatherly quality in
the man's voice that Gale liked.
"The natives can't be so terrible," said Jan. "A tribe of them carried
our car around a washout for us."
"Ah, yes. The natives, they will not harm you. I can give you a sign
that will take you safely through any native village in these mountains.
But the wild beasts, that is different. Only last week a rogue elephant
visited a village and tore down the houses. The week before, a child was
carried away by a man-eating tiger."
Gale studied the man's face. Was he, she wondered, trying to frighten
them? She doubted that. Could he be told of their mission? She did not
know. Fortunately he was to provide the answers.
"Here is your tea," he said. "The cakes will be here in a moment. Will
you drink tea with me?" They drank in silence.
"Now," he said. "We are friends. Nothing that I can do for you shall
remain undone."
"Then," said Gale, "tell us, has a tall, gorgeously dressed woman
visited this temple in the last three days?"
"Ah! There you have me!" The monk's eyes flickered. "This temple is a
place of refuge for all. I am not free to tell who comes and who goes.
You might remain here for a month and no one would know." This speech
set Gale back on her heels. If she could not ask a simple question and
get an answer from this man, what could she expect? They ate their cakes
and drank a second cup of tea in silence.
"You must not leave our house in silence." Their host seemed genuinely
disturbed. "Come. Let me tell you a little. I have lived and studied in
America. America is my foster-mother. I love her for that, and because
she has come to the aid of my first mother, China. Listen?" He held up a
hand.
They caught the low drone of a distant airplane.
"This," he said, "is one gateway to Burma. The pass is over yonder among
the clouds. More than one of your brave fighters has fallen among those
jagged crags, and not a few have been rescued by our monks or by the
natives who gladly aid them."
"Oh!" Gale breathed softly. Hope had flamed in her heart. "Has--has one
been rescued lately?"
"Not within a month," was the quiet reply. Hope fled.
"But if one has fallen," came after a brief silence. The monk did not
finish.
"Yes, yes! One has been lost," Gale exclaimed softly, throwing caution
to the wind. "A very good friend of mine is down at the place they call
Hell's Half Hour. We have come to find him."
"You--you two came alone to find him?" Fresh surprise, not unmixed with
admiration, was written on the man's face. "Then I beg of you, allow me
to assist you."
In the end, when the two girls again took up the trail, four monks, one
of them a Chinese doctor of some ability, went with them.
As they came to the crest of a ridge overlooking the temple, Gale was
surprised to see the extent of the grounds. Besides the main building,
there were many others, some small and some quite large. She recalled
the words of the head monk: "You could live here for a month and no one
would know." Then she thought of the Woman in Purple, and shuddered.
They had tramped for two hours up the jungle trail when one of their
guides gave a grunt, then motioned for silence.
Out of the profound, mystery-laden silence came a strange sound--the
distant roll of a drum. The drumbeats were measured and spaced. They
came to an end, only to begin again. From time to time the guide spoke
in Chinese to the doctor. At last Gale could stand it no longer.
"What does it mean? Tell me!" she begged.
"Your friend has been found. He is far in the heart of the jungle and
has been injured," said the doctor.
"How could you know that?" she demanded.
"The drums, they have told us."
"The drums?" Gale stared.
"All the natives in these hills are our friends," the doctor explained.
"When a flier falls near a village they do all they can for him. Then,
on the signal drums they beat out a message in code all their own. Other
villages take up the story. In the end, it reaches us. Our guide
understands the code.
"Come. We must hasten," he added. "They are bringing your friend out of
the jungle. We must go to meet them. We shall do what we can."